Directiva

Donat Morgan

Donat grew up in Northern Ireland and after graduating from university with a degree in education, moved to Gran Canaria. Teaching infants in a British school grounded his experience and desire to work with young people, and he went on to found a British International School in 1989 with his wife Mary. They have 3 children, all born in Gran Canaria, and has recently become a proud grandfather, twice over.

In 2004 Donat obtained an MBA in Educational Management and in 2006 he became involved with the Executive Committee of NABSS. Between 2010 and 2015 he was the President of the Association.
The National Association of British Schools in Spain (NABSS) represents the interests of more than 60 British Schools in Spain, providing a full inspection system, coordinating professional development and promoting cooperation and communication between the schools. 40,000 students are educated in British schools in Spain.

In the 2016 New Year’s Honours list, Donat was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for “services to British education in Spain”.
When not spending time with his family, Donat likes water sports and enjoys walking, swimming and cycling.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Qualification:B.A. (Hons), MBA (Ed. Man.)

Post:Principal

Mary Morgan

Mary grew up in Northern Ireland and after graduating from University of Ulster, In 1986 she moved with her husband to Gran Canaria in Spain.

She taught secondary students in a British school on the island and then moved to teaching infants at the school she founded with her husband in 1989.

Further studies with the Open University and Leicester University led to a move out of the classroom and Mary now has responsibility for the administration at Oakley and ensuring effective communication among the school community. Over the last 29 years Oakley College has grown to accommodate students between 2 and 18 years of age, offering IGCSE and A-levels.

Mary and Donat, have 3 children and are proud grandparents of two. Mary enjoys long leisurely walks, swimming and spending time with her family.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Qualification:B.Sc (Hons), D. Man.

Post:Director

Terry Binns

Terry was born and raised in Yorkshire in the North of England. He studied at The University of Wolverhampton (UK) and Akron University (USA).

In between his studies Terry worked as a plasterer, fork lift truck driver and lifeguard before finally graduating from the University of Leeds as a teacher in 1995.

From 1995 to 2009 Terry worked in and around the city of Bradford as a teacher of English and History. He was also a Year Head and worked within a behaviour management unit; whilst also attending Huddersfield University part time, working on a second degree.

In 2009 he moved to Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa and worked for 5 years at the International School of Zanzibar.

Outside of school Terry enjoys swimming, cycling and music.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Qualification:BA (Hon) Humanities, PGCE

Post:Head of Secondary

Janice Short

After completing her initial teacher training (B. Ed Hons) at Edge Hill University, Janice began her teaching career in mid Wales where she taught a variety of year groups as well as becoming coordinator for various subjects. She was involved in training sports teams, including netball, rounders and swimming. After 15 years of primary school teaching, she then moved into lecturing as a Primary Mathematics specialist at Glyndŵr University, teaching on the teacher training degree as well as Early Childhood Studies and Education degree programmes.

Six years later, Janice moved to Cairo to fulfil her ambition to teach internationally, teaching Year 6 before moving into management at the same school, where she stayed for five years. She then moved to Malawi to start the Primary Section of an international school, becoming its first Headteacher. During this time, she has trained teachers in all aspects of the UK curriculum and behaviour management skills. She is also a trained peer inspector for both Estyn (Wales) and BSME (British School of the Middle East).

Janice enjoys travelling to various countries, especially those with different cultures and traditions; scuba diving; swimming and supporting rugby, especially the Welsh national team. She also loves to learn and is likely to be found reading a variety of books at any given time!

ADDITIONAL INFO

Qualification:B.Ed (Hons); M.Ed; M.A (Professional Studies)

Post:Head of Primary

Marta Morgan

Marta was born and raised in Gran Canaria and moved to Brighton to complete her University studies, completing an honours degree in Applied Psychology and Sociology and Masters (MSC) in Applied Positive Psychology.

Marta then spent 3 years working in mental health, including working as a Team Leader managing the smooth running of 20 high risk level clients and 20 staff in a community setting, including sleep in´s. Marta qualified as a PROACT SCIP® instructor and trained the staff team in this proactive philosophy for managing challenging behaviour by meeting individual´s needs, including teaching physical interventions to manage a crisis in the safest way possible. Clients had a range of complexities including dual diagnosis such as schizophrenia, learning disability, autism, bipolar, Down syndrome; negative practices such as self-harm, suicide attempts and had convictions such as arson, drug use, pedophilia, stalking and attempted murder.

This work included contact with a variety of professionals to support and manage the client’s effective and safety integration into the community, including participating regularly in multi-disciplinary meetings between clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers.

Marta enjoys volunteering and volunteered in Brighton´s Women Centre and with St Johns ambulance for over 5 years, supporting homeless people in Brighton by signposting, low level counselling and offering emergency first aid services. Marta trained as a First Aider and received basic training in drug awareness. During her time at University, Marta worked as a Student Ambassador and as an Orientation Leader for international students in Brighton. Marta is also TEFL qualified and has participated in a wellbeing initiative to teach a wellbeing program based on the Masters course of Applied Positive Psychology in Haberdashers school in London. Marta´s hobbies include spending time with family and friends, surfing and travelling.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Qualification:B.A.Psychology, M.Sc Wellbeing, TEFL

Post: Student Care and Guidance Councillor. Child Protection Officer.

Nika Torej

Nika, our Saturday school coordinator, grew up in Maribor, the second biggest city in Slovenia. She studied a double degree, Pedagogy and Spanish language at The University of Ljubljana and completed her Masters degree in teaching foreign languages at The University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) in 2014.

For as long as she can remember, she has been curious about different teaching methods, about what makes us learn faster and better and has explored the theory of what exactly makes people happy and fulfilled when learning languages. Her Masters thesis speaks about the Third Teacher – how the environment influences the learning process aside from the teacher and text books.

She is also passionate about an array of unrelated points to teaching, like travelling (she has travelled to more than 15 countries around the world), trained volleyball for more than 9 years, and she has always been interested in psychology and entrepreneurship.

She was one of the 9 Slovenian teachers who were chosen for the European teaching project Comenius and that’s how she came here. In Slovenia she was working as a Spanish teacher for more than 4 years and when she moved to Gran Canaria in 2014, she started her professional career as an ESL teacher and became our Saturday school coordinator in April 2015.

To sum up, if you get the chance to meet her, you will realise she brings her whole self to what she does.